Methods and systems for delayed notifications in communications networks

ABSTRACT

Communications is the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information. However, whilst immense investments into evolving communications infrastructure supporting multiple communications channels have been made the vast majority of communications models, standards, and developments focus to the transmission of the message as a single process with other aspects of the communications channel are considered simply delays in the communications channel. However, it would be beneficial to provide enhancements to such communications channels to provide additional information to the sender with respect to the delivery to and recovery by the recipient of the message such that not only do they have the option to elect to receive a delivery notification in communications systems that today do not provide such information, but that in these systems and those supporting delivery notifications increased information is provided to the user allowing them to ascertain or estimate the recipient&#39;s absorption/reading of the message.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication 61/694,325 filed on Aug. 29, 2012 entitled “Methods andSystems for Delayed Notifications in Communications Networks.”

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to communications systems and moreparticularly delayed notifications and enhanced sender feedback.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Communication is the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, asby speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior. As such communicationrequires a sender, a message, and a recipient, although the receiverdoes need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicateat the time of communication and therefore communication can occuracross wide ranges of distances in both time and space. Typicallycommunication requires that the communicating parties share an area ofcommunicative commonality and a communication process is typicallyconsidered complete once the receiver has understood the message of thesender.

The first major model of communication, see Shannon et al in “TheMathematical Theory of Communication” (University of Illinois Press,1949) consisted of three primary parts, namely sender, channel, andreceiver. In a simple model, often referred to as the transmission modelor standard view of communication, information or content (e.g. amessage in a natural language) is sent in some form (e.g. as spokenlanguage) from a source/sender/encoder to adestination/receiver/decoder. This common conception of communicationsimply views communication as a means of sending and receivinginformation and according to Shannon is based on the following elements:

-   -   an information source, which produces a message;    -   a transmitter, which encodes the message into signals;    -   a channel, to which signals are adapted for transmission;    -   a receiver, which decodes (reconstructs) the message from the        signal; and    -   a destination, where the message arrives.

This model was expanded by Berlo et al into theSender-Message-Channel-Receiver (SMCR) Model of Communication, see forexample “The Process of Communication” (Rinehart & Winston Press, NewYork, 1960) which separated the communication model into clear parts andhas been expanded upon by other scholars. Accordingly, such models allowone-way, two-way, and multi-way conversations to be modeled, analysedand implemented within telecommunications infrastructure across multiplecommunications technologies to perform the transmitter, channel, andreceiver such as wireless, wired, and fiber optic. Such models alsosupport multiple communication formats including, for example, voice,either through Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) or Voice-over-InternetProtocol (VOIP), as a general two-way communication process, electronicmail, commonly referred to as email and generalized into one-waycommunications, and Short Message Service, commonly referred to as SMSor text and similarly generalized into a one-way communication.Accordingly, communications common today such as “Tweeting” on thesocial media network Twitter™ and concepts such as “email threads” andInstant Messaging are merely concatenations of multiple discrete emailand SMS one-way communications. “Tweeting” and email provide multicastcommunications wherein the message is communicated to a plurality ofrecipients simultaneously in a single transmission from the sourcewherein copies of the message are automatically created in other networkelements, such as routers, but only when the topology of the networkrequires it.

However, these models and the consideration of the interactions betweensender and recipient is that the message is sent by the sender andreceived by the recipient as a single process and that other aspects ofthe communications channel such as voicemail, email server, and textserver that store the senders message prior to the recipients receiptare modeled as a delay within the communications channel. However, goingback to the primary definition of communication is the exchange ofthoughts, messages, or information and accordingly these models andtheir physical implementations do not provide for verification that theexchange has occurred in the manner the sender intended unless forexample the voice communication is a two-way session or a subsequentone-way communication from the recipient referencing the originalone-way communication or its content is received by the sender.

According, whilst voicemail's introduction enabled people to leavelengthy, secure and detailed messages in natural voice, workinghand-in-hand with corporate and personal phone systems it also broke thetwo-way communication session methodology of telephony prior to itsintroduction. This is further compounded by there being two main modesof voicemail operation, namely telephone answering and voice messaging.Telephone answering voicemail answers outside calls and takes a messagefrom any outside caller, either because the extension was busy or rangwith no-answer, or voice messaging which enables any subscriber with amailbox number to send messages directly to any or many subscribers'mailboxes without first calling them. Accordingly, the sender is unableto determine whether the recipient has listened to the message, deletedit unheard, or stopped listening part way through the voicemail. Withthe rapid uptake of portable electronic devices (PEDs) many individualsnow have three or more telephone numbers, for example home, cellphone,and work, thereby increasing the complexity of ensuring a message isdelivered to a recipient, yet alone played and understood.

These issues have continued into email and SMS/text communications inthe last thirty years as these systems have proliferated. With theadoption of email into business activities and its replacement ofphysical mail delivery which provided options for delivery verificationsuch as from the mail delivery organization itself or through asignature of the recipient the absence of verification presented anissue. Accordingly, some email systems such as Microsoft™ Outlookintroduced email to provide a digitally time-stamped record to revealthe exact time and date that an email was received and/or openedaccording to the settings established by the sender. However, due to thenature of the technology, email tracking cannot be considered anabsolutely accurate indicator that a message was opened or read by therecipient. Even receiving a reply referencing the original email doesnot address whether the recipient read the content.

Likewise within SMS/text systems the vast majority of such systems,commonly referred to as Instant Messaging (IM) systems, present the sameissues of whether the recipient received and read the text message.Accordingly, in these systems the receipt of a reply from the recipientmay provide some indication that they received or read the message buttheir reply could be a coincidence. One notable exception to this isResearch in Motion's Blackberry™ Messenger service which provides adelivery notification on the sender's messaging interface and a readnotification when the recipient opens the message. However, this serviceis feasible as the entire messaging system is routed through Research inMotion's own messaging servers.

In many instances the sender whilst wishing to send the recipient amessage does not wish to send the message at the time they decide to doso as they do not wish to disturb the recipient or potentially disturbthe recipient. For example, the sender may need to send a message to therecipient at 10 pm in the evening at their home but does not want todisturb the recipient and their family at home. Accordingly, the sendermay decide not to send the message at that time and to do so in themorning wherein they may forget or miss the recipient. Alternativelythey may elect to use another form of communications, such as email,which is not delivered to the recipient due to a network issue or is notseen or opened by the recipient.

Accordingly it would be beneficial to provide enhancements to voicemail,email, SMS and other communications that provide additional informationto the sender with respect to the delivery to and recovery by therecipient of the message such that not only do they have the option toelect to receive a delivery notification in communications systems thattoday do not provide such information, but that in these systems andthose supporting delivery notifications increased information isprovided to the user allowing them to ascertain or estimate therecipient's absorption/reading of the message.

Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparentto those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the followingdescription of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction withthe accompanying figures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to mitigate limitations in theprior art relating to communications systems and more particularlydelayed notifications and enhanced sender feedback.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided amethod comprising:

-   receiving at an electronic device a first message from a sender    intended for a user of the electronic device;-   determining whether the user accesses the first message;-   initiating when a positive determination is made a first process is    executed by a processor forming a predetermined portion of the    electronic device, the first process for monitoring at least a first    characteristic of a plurality of characteristics, each    characteristic relating to the user's access of the first message;-   determining whether the user has finished accessing the first    message; transmitting to the sender data relating to the user's    accessing of the first message, the data comprising at least the    first characteristic of the plurality of characteristics.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided amethod comprising:

-   a) receiving upon a first electronic device from a user a first    message for transmission to a contact;-   b) receiving upon the first electronic device a plurality of items    of contact data;-   c) receiving upon the first electronic device from the user time    data relating to a future point in time that the first message    should not be delivered before;-   d) transmitting the first message and user time date to a second    electronic device from the first electronic device, the second    electronic device associated with a first item of contact data of    the plurality of items of contact data;-   e) receiving at the first electronic device an indication that the    first message was not delivered to the second electronic device    associated with the first item of contact data of the plurality of    items of contact data;-   f) automatically transmitting to another electronic device    associated with another item of contact data of the plurality of    items of contact data a second message and user time data; and-   g) displaying on the one of the second electronic device and another    electronic device to which the first message was successfully    delivered an indication that the respective one of the first message    and second message for the contact is available after the future    point in time indicated by the user time data has passed.

Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparentto those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the followingdescription of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction withthe accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way ofexample only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts a network supporting communications to and fromelectronic devices implementing temporally delayed messaging accordingto embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 2 depicts an electronic device and network access point supportingtemporally delayed messaging according to embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 3 depicts a network supporting communications to and fromelectronic devices implementing temporally delayed messaging accordingto embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 4 depicts a process flow for a telephone message according to theprior art;

FIG. 5 depicts a process flow for an electronic mail message accordingto the prior art;

FIG. 6 depicts a process flow for a voicemail delivery system accordingto an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 depicts a process flow for a short message delivery systemaccording to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 depicts a process flow for a voicemail delivery system accordingto an embodiment of the invention allowing the user to modify contactdelivery information upon a failed initial delivery;

FIG. 9 depicts a process flow for a short message delivery systemaccording to an embodiment of the invention allowing the user to modifycontact delivery and message information upon a failed initial delivery;

FIG. 10 depicts a process flow for a voicemail delivery system accordingto an embodiment of the invention allowing the user to modify contactdelivery information upon a failed initial delivery or delayed recoveryby the receiving contact; and

FIG. 11 depicts a process flow for an electronic mail message systemaccording to an embodiment of the invention allowing the user to performactions based upon failure of recipient to open electronic mail messageor review portion of contents.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is directed to communications systems and moreparticularly delayed notifications and enhanced sender feedback.

The ensuing description provides exemplary embodiment(s) only, and isnot intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of thedisclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the exemplaryembodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enablingdescription for implementing an exemplary embodiment. It beingunderstood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope asset forth in the appended claims.

A “portable electronic device” (PED) as used herein and throughout thisdisclosure, refers to a wireless device used for communication thatrequires a battery or other independent form of energy for power. Thisincludes devices, but is not limited to, such as a cellular telephone,smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computer, pager,portable multimedia player, portable gaming console, laptop computer,tablet computer, and an electronic reader. A “fixed electronic device”(FED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to awireless device or wired device used for communication that does notrequire a battery or other independent form of energy for power. Thisincludes devices, but is not limited to, Internet enable televisions,gaming systems, desktop computers, kiosks, and Internet enabledcommunications terminals.

A “network operator/service provider” as used herein may refer to, butis not limited to, a telephone or other company that provides servicesfor mobile phone subscribers including voice, text, and Internet;telephone or other company that provides services for subscribersincluding but not limited to voice, text, Voice-over-IP, and Internet; atelephone, cable or other company that provides wireless access to localarea, metropolitan area, and long-haul networks for data, text,Internet, and other traffic or communication sessions; etc.

A “software system” as used as used herein may refer to, but is notlimited to, a server based computer system executing a softwareapplication or software suite of applications to provide one or morefeatures relating to the licensing, annotating, publishing, generating,rendering, encrypting, social community engagement, storing, merging,and rendering electronic content and tracking of user and socialcommunity activities of electronic content. The software system beingaccessed through communications from a “software application” or“software applications” and providing data including, but not limitedto, electronic content to the software application. A “softwareapplication” as used as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to,an application, combination of applications, or application suite inexecution upon a portable electronic device or fixed electronic deviceto provide one or more features relating to one or more featuresrelating to generating, rendering, managing and controlling a userinterface. The software application in its various forms may form partof the operating system, be part of an application layer, or be anadditional layer between the operating system and application layer.

A “user” or “sender” as used herein and through this disclosure refersto, but is not limited to, a person or device that utilizes the softwaresystem and/or software application and as used herein may refer to aperson, group, or organization that sends a message with the softwaresystem and/or software application. A “contact” or “recipient” or“receiver” as used herein and through this disclosure refers to, but isnot limited to, a person or device that utilizes the software systemand/or software application and as used herein may refer to a person,group, or organization that receives a message with the software systemand/or software application.

Now referring to FIG. 1 there is depicted a network 100 supportingcommunications to and from electronic devices implementing temporallydelayed messaging according to embodiments of the invention. As shownfirst and second user groups 100A and 100B respectively interface to atelecommunications network 100. Within the representativetelecommunication architecture a remote central exchange 180communicates with the remainder of a telecommunication service providersnetwork via the network 100 which may include for example long-haulOC-48/OC-192 backbone elements, an OC-48 wide area network (WAN), aPassive Optical Network, and a Wireless Link. The central exchange 180is connected via the network 100 to local, regional, and internationalexchanges (not shown for clarity) and therein through network 100 tofirst and second wireless access points (AP) 195A and 195B respectivelywhich provide Wi-Fi cells for first and second user groups 100A and 100Brespectively. Also connected to the network 100 are first and secondWi-Fi nodes 110A and 110B, the latter of which being coupled to network100 via router 105. Second Wi-Fi node 110B is associated withresidential building 160A and environment 160 within which are first andsecond user groups 100A and 100B. Second user group 100B may also beconnected to the network 100 via wired interfaces including, but notlimited to, DSL, Dial-Up, DOCSIS, Ethernet, G.hn, ISDN, MoCA, PON, andPower line communication (PLC) which may or may not be routed through arouter such as router 105.

Within the cell associated with first AP 110A the first group of users100A may employ a variety of portable electronic devices including forexample, laptop computer 155, portable gaming console 135, tabletcomputer 140, smartphone 150, cellular telephone 145 as well as portablemultimedia player 130. Within the cell associated with second AP 110Bare the second group of users 100B which may employ a variety of fixedelectronic devices including for example gaming console 125, personalcomputer 115 and wireless/Internet enabled television 120 as well ascable modem 105.

Also connected to the network 100 are first and second APs whichprovide, for example, cellular GSM (Global System for MobileCommunications) telephony services as well as 3G and 4G evolved serviceswith enhanced data transport support. Second AP 195B provides coveragein the exemplary embodiment to first and second user groups 100A and100B. Alternatively the first and second user groups 100A and 100B maybe geographically disparate and access the network 100 through multipleAPs, not shown for clarity, distributed geographically by the networkoperator or operators. First AP 195A as show provides coverage to firstuser group 100A and environment 160, which comprises second user group100B as well as first user group 100A. Accordingly, the first and seconduser groups 100A and 100B may according to their particularcommunications interfaces communicate to the network 100 through one ormore wireless communications standards such as, for example, IEEE802.11, IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, UMTS, GSM 850, GSM 900,GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GPRS, ITU-R 5.138, ITU-R 5.150, ITU-R 5.280, andIMT-2000. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that manyportable and fixed electronic devices may support multiple wirelessprotocols simultaneously, such that for example a user may employ GSMservices such as telephony and SMS and Wi-Fi/WiMAX data transmission,VOIP and Internet access. Accordingly portable electronic devices withinfirst user group 100A may form associations either through standardssuch as IEEE 802.15 and Bluetooth as well in an ad-hoc manner.

Also connected to the network 100 are retail environment 165, firstcommercial environment 170, and second commercial environment 175 aswell as first and second servers 190A and 190B which together withothers not shown for clarity, may host according to embodiments of theinventions multiple services associated with a provider of the softwareoperating system(s) and/or software application(s) associated with theelectronic device(s), a provider of the electronic device, provider ofone or more aspects of wired and/or wireless communications, productdatabases, inventory management databases, retail pricing databases,license databases, customer databases, websites, and softwareapplications for download to or access by fixed and portable electronicdevices. First and second primary content sources 190A and 190B may alsohost for example other Internet services such as a search engine,financial services, third party applications and other Internet basedservices.

FIG. 2 there is depicted an electronic device 204 and network accesspoint 207 supporting temporally delayed messaging according toembodiments of the invention. Electronic device 204 may for example be aportable electronic device or a fixed electronic device and may includeadditional elements above and beyond those described and depicted. Alsodepicted within the electronic device 204 is the protocol architectureas part of a simplified functional diagram of a system 200 that includesan electronic device 204, such as a smartphone 155, an access point (AP)206, such as first Wi-Fi AP 610, and one or more network devices 207,such as communication servers, streaming media servers, and routers forexample such as first and second servers 175 and 185 respectively.Network devices 207 may be coupled to AP 206 via any combination ofnetworks, wired, wireless and/or optical communication links such asdiscussed above in respect of FIG. 1. The electronic device 204 includesone or more processors 210 and a memory 212 coupled to processor(s) 210.AP 206 also includes one or more processors 211 and a memory 213 coupledto processor(s) 211. A non-exhaustive list of examples for any ofprocessors 210 and 211 includes a central processing unit (CPU), adigital signal processor (DSP), a reduced instruction set computer(RISC), a complex instruction set computer (CISC) and the like.Furthermore, any of processors 210 and 211 may be part of applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs) or may be a part of applicationspecific standard products (ASSPs). A non-exhaustive list of examplesfor memories 212 and 213 includes any combination of the followingsemiconductor devices such as registers, latches, ROM, EEPROM, flashmemory devices, non-volatile random access memory devices (NVRAM),SDRAM, DRAM, double data rate (DDR) memory devices, SRAM, universalserial bus (USB) removable memory, and the like.

Electronic device 204 may include an audio input element 214, forexample a microphone, and an audio output element 216, for example, aspeaker, coupled to any of processors 210. Electronic device 204 mayinclude a video input element 218, for example, a video camera, and avideo output element 220, for example an LCD display, coupled to any ofprocessors 210. Electronic device 204 also includes a keyboard 215 andtouchpad 217 which may for example be a physical keyboard and touchpadallowing the user to enter content or select functions within one ofmore applications 222. Alternatively the keyboard 215 and touchpad 217may be predetermined regions of a touch sensitive element forming partof the display within the electronic device 204. The one or moreapplications 222 that are typically stored in memory 212 and areexecutable by any combination of processors 210. Electronic device 204also includes accelerometer 260 providing three-dimensional motion inputto the process 210 and GPS 262 which provides geographical locationinformation to processor 210.

Electronic device 204 includes a protocol stack 224 and AP 206 includesa communication stack 225. Within system 200 protocol stack 224 is shownas IEEE 802.11 protocol stack but alternatively may exploit otherprotocol stacks such as an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)multimedia protocol stack for example. Likewise AP stack 225 exploits aprotocol stack but is not expanded for clarity. Elements of protocolstack 224 and AP stack 225 may be implemented in any combination ofsoftware, firmware and/or hardware. Protocol stack 224 includes an IEEE802.11-compatible PHY module 226 that is coupled to one or moreFront-End Tx/Rx & Antenna 228, an IEEE 802.11-compatible MAC module 230coupled to an IEEE 802.2-compatible LLC module 232. Protocol stack 224includes a network layer IP module 234, a transport layer User DatagramProtocol (UDP) module 236 and a transport layer Transmission ControlProtocol (TCP) module 238.

Protocol stack 224 also includes a session layer Real Time TransportProtocol (RTP) module 240, a Session Announcement Protocol (SAP) module242, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) module 244 and a Real TimeStreaming Protocol (RTSP) module 246. Protocol stack 224 includes apresentation layer media negotiation module 248, a call control module250, one or more audio codecs 252 and one or more video codecs 254.Applications 222 may be able to create maintain and/or terminatecommunication sessions with any of devices 207 by way of AP 206.Typically, applications 222 may activate any of the SAP, SIP, RTSP,media negotiation and call control modules for that purpose. Typically,information may propagate from the SAP, SIP, RTSP, media negotiation andcall control modules to PHY module 226 through TCP module 238, IP module234, LLC module 232 and MAC module 230.

It would be apparent to one skilled in the art that elements of theelectronic device 204 may also be implemented within the AP 206including but not limited to one or more elements of the protocol stack224, including for example an IEEE 802.11-compatible PHY module, an IEEE802.11-compatible MAC module, and an IEEE 802.2-compatible LLC module232. The AP 206 may additionally include a network layer IP module, atransport layer User Datagram Protocol (UDP) module and a transportlayer Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) module as well as a sessionlayer Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) module, a Session AnnouncementProtocol (SAP) module, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) module and aReal Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) module, media negotiation module,and a call control module.

Portable and fixed electronic devices represented by electronic device204 may include one or more additional wireless or wired interfaces inaddition to the depicted IEEE 802.11 interface which may be selectedfrom the group comprising IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, UMTS,GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GPRS, ITU-R 5.138, ITU-R 5.150,ITU-R 5.280, IMT-2000, DSL, Dial-Up, DOCSIS, Ethernet, G.hn, ISDN, MoCA,PON, and Power line communication (PLC).

FIG. 3 depicts a 2G/3G network 300 supporting communications to and fromelectronic devices implementing temporally delayed messaging accordingto embodiments of the invention. As depicted 2G/3G network 300 comprisesmultiple elements described supra in respect of FIG. 1 such as a portionof network 100, remote central exchange 180, and first and secondwireless access points (AP) 195A and 195B respectively. However, 2G/3Gnetwork 300 depicts that predetermined portion of network 100 inparticular and in more detail that relates to the wireless support forFEDs and PEDs. 2G/3G network 300 supports so-called 2G (secondgeneration) wireless telephone technology standards such as GSM (GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe Spécial Mobile)implemented in GSM 850 MHz, GSM 900 MHz, GSM 1800 MHz, and GSM 1900 MHzexploiting primarily TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). 2G/3G network300 also supports other 2G/3G (third generation) wireless telephonetechnology standards such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and 3Gstandards such as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System).Whilst 4G (fourth generation) wireless telephone technology standardsare not discussed in respect of 2G/3G network 300 it would be evident toone skilled in the art that such standards as IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced((International Mobile Telecommunications) embodied in LTE-Advanced(Long-Term Evolution Advanced), IEEE 802.16m (WirelessMAN), 3GPP (3GPartnership Project) LTE and IEEE 802.16e (Mobile WiMAX) may also besupported through variations in the 2G/3G network 300 elements,additional infrastructure, and software/firmware for example. Asdepicted a 3G UMTS cell 305 is addressed by Node 305A, for example suchas described supra in respect of first and second wireless access points(AP) 195A and 195B respectively in FIG. 1, providing UMTS services tousers connected to the UMTS cell 305 from their FEDs/PEDs. Node 305Acommunicates with a Radio Network Controller (RNC) 310 which is then incommunication with Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 325 and Serving GPRSSupport Node (SGSN) 335.

Also depicted is GSM cell 315 addressed by Base Transceiver Station(BTS) 315A, for example such as described supra in respect of first andsecond wireless access points (AP) 195A and 195B respectively in FIG. 1,providing GSM services to users connected to the GSM cell 315 via theirFEDs/PEDs. The BTS 315A is similarly in communication with the MSC 325and SGSN 335 respectively as is Node 305A and these are also coupled toone another via direct communications link and Equipment IdentityRegister (EIR) 385 which maintains a database with records of all themobile stations (MS) that are allowed in a network as well as a databaseof all equipment that is banned, e.g. because it is lost or stolen forexample. Accordingly, FEDs/PEDs registering with one or other of theUMTS and/or GSM networks are registered into the EIR 385 and validated.Also coupled to MSC 325 are a Private Automatic Branch eXchange (PABX)330, denoting an exchange serving a particular business or enterprise asopposed to one operated by a telecom carrier that operates for manybusinesses or for the general public, and an IN Database 380 used inconjunction with an Intelligent Network Application Part (INAP)signaling protocol used for controlling telecommunication servicesmigrated from traditional switching points to computer based serviceindependent platforms such as for example 0800 free phone access.

MSC 325 and SGSN 335 also communicate with Home Location Register (HLR)390 which provides a central database containing details of eachsubscriber authorized to use the core network. HLR 390 also communicateswith Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 355 which provides a gatewayinterconnection between the packet mobile networks, e.g. GPRS, GSM, andUMTS, and the public data network (Internet) 370. Accordingly, a useraccessing their PED in GSM cell 315 has their communications routedthrough BSC 320, SGSN 335 via Private Backbone 350 to GGSN 355 andtherein the Internet 370. The device and account verification for a useris performed through the polling of EIR 385 and HLR 390. Verificationthrough HLR 390 also invokes Authentication Centre (AUC) 395 whichauthenticates each SIM card that attempts to connect to the networkthereby allowing the HLR 390 to manage the SIM and services. Thisauthentication also includes, typically, generation of an encryption keywhich is subsequently used to encrypt all wireless communications, suchas voice and Simple Message Service (SMS) for example, between themobile phone and the GSM core network.

Also connected to the Private Backbone 350 is GPRS Roaming Exchange(GRX) which acts as a hub for GPRS connections from roaming usersthereby removing the need for dedicated link between each GPRS serviceprovider and hence between multiple 2G/3G networks 300. The MSC 325 asdepicted is also coupled to Short Message Service Center (SM-SC) 360such that SMS messages send by users are stored within the SM-SC 360which delivers each SMS message to its destination user when they areavailable, i.e. when they access via UMTS 305 or GSM 315 for example andtheir presence is determined through the verification and authenticationprocesses with EIR 385, HLR 290, and AUC 395 which are accessible bySM-SC 360 via MSC 325. Also connected to the MSC 325 is Gateway MobileSwitching Center (GMSC) which determines which visited MSC thesubscriber being called is currently located as well as routing allcommunications to/from PEDs and the Public Switched Telephone Network(PSTN)/Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) 375 which handlesservices including Plain Old Telephony Service (POTS) as well assimultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and othernetwork services over the traditional circuits such as copper wire.Accordingly such a 2G/3G network 300

FIG. 4 depicts a process flow 400 for a telephone message according tothe prior art. Process flow 400 starts at step 405 and proceeds to step410 wherein a user decides to contact a contact and dials their phonenumber wherein the telecommunications system, such as described above inrespect of FIGS. 1 and 3, interfaced to their device, such as forexample PED 204 in FIG. 2, attempts to establish a connection to thecontact's phone, which may be for example a FED on a fixed land line, aFED with wireless interface, a PED with wireless interface or a FED on aVoice-over-Internet Protocol (VOIP) service over a wired interface. Instep 420 if the system is unable to establish a connection to thecontact's phone, such as for example due to a capacity issue on a linkwithin the network, a switching node capacity issue or blocked path,then the process flow proceeds to step 425 wherein the telecommunicationsystem provides an engaged tone to the user and the flow proceeds tostep 455 and stops. Alternatively at step 420 if a connection isestablished the process proceeds to step 430 wherein the process flowforks according to whether the contact answers or not. If the contactanswers the process flow 400 proceeds to step 435 with the user andcontact engaging resulting in the user's message being delivered in step440 wherein at the completion of the conversation the process flow 400proceeds to step 455 and stops. If the contact does not answer theprocess flow 400 proceeds to step 445 with the user hearing a longerring tone followed by the process flow 400 transferring to a voicemailsystem wherein the user has the option to lead a voicemail wherein theprocess proceeds to step 460 or not leave a message wherein the processproceeds to step 455 and stops.

Where the user decides to leave a voicemail then in step 460 the userleaves the voicemail message wherein the process proceeds to step 465and provides an indication to the user that a voicemail message isavailable for them. Next in step 470 the process essentially holdspending a decision of the contact to play the voicemail message whereinthe process plays back the message in step 475 when the user has electedto hear the message wherein the process proceeds to step 455 and stops.It would be evident to one skilled in the art that the contact,according to the particular characteristics of the voicemail system, maydelete the voicemail unheard, delete the voicemail after hearing a shortinitial portion, or be unaware that this particular voicemail isawaiting as there other voicemails already stored and the system merelyindicates messages waiting or indicates just a number of messageswaiting.

Now referring to FIG. 5 there is depicted a process flow 500 for anelectronic mail (email) message according to the prior art. The processbegins at step 505 and proceeds to step 510 wherein a user decides tosend an email to a contact. Accordingly, in process step 515 the emailsoftware system stores the email generated by the user for the contactwithin memory. Next in step 520 the user decides whether to send theemail immediately or at a later point in time wherein if the decision isto not delay the process proceeds to step 525 and the email is sent fromthe user's email system to the contact's email server. If the decisionin step 520 is to delay sending the email then process proceeds to step530 wherein the user enters the time after which the email should besent from their email system. The process then proceeds to step 535wherein the user's email system stores the email until the time selectedby the user wherein it then the process proceeds to step 525 and sendsthe email to the email server of the contact.

In step 540 a determination is made whether the email was delivered tothe contact's email system wherein a negative determination results inthe process proceeding to step 545 such that a delivery failure noticeto the user's email account is sent and the process proceeds to step 580and stops. Optionally, the user's email system only provides a deliveryfailure notice if the user elects to select this option and accordinglyin some embodiments of the invention the process would therefore proceeddirectly from process step 540 to process step 580. If the determinationat step 540 was positive then the process proceeds to step 550 whereinthe contact at a subsequent point in time accesses their email systemwherein in step 555 the email system displays the InBox to the contactwhich would now include the email message from the user with anappropriate indication that the email message is new. The process thenproceeds to step 560 which is essentially depicts a hold as no furtheraction arises unless the contact opens the email message from the user.If the contact opens the email message from the user then the processproceeds to step 565 wherein a determination is made as to whether theuser requested a read receipt for the email message. If thedetermination is positive then the process proceeds to step 570 whereinan email is sent to the user indicating that the contact has opened theemail and the process proceeds to step 575 wherein the email isdisplayed to the contact, otherwise the process proceeds to step 575directly. Accordingly the process then proceeds to step 580 and ends.

It would be evident to one skilled in the art that a contact opening anemail does not automatically mean that they actually read the email andthat other actions such as reading part of the email message contents,the contact deleting the email message, or the email message beingtransferred to a “junk” or “spam” folder may occur that result in theuser not receiving notice that the contact has opened and reviewed theemail or understood the message. In some email systems the contact isprovided with a pop-up window indicating that a read receipt has beenrequested and provides options to the contact to either send such areceipt or not send it.

Accordingly, it would be beneficial in many instances where emailmessages and/or voicemail messages are sent containing time sensitiveinformation, as well as other electronic communications such as SMSmessages (text messages or texts), that the contact is aware as towhether the message has been received, that the pertinent information isread, and the contact can undertake other actions should they berequired due to the nature of the contents of the message sent to thecontact. In other situations a user may decide to send a message to acontact on the basis that they do not wish to have the contact receivethe message immediately. For example, a user may decide to leave amessage at a time that they know or suspect is inconvenient for thecontact or at a time they do not wish to disturb the contact. Examplesof such instances may include, but not limited to, middle of the night,very early in the morning and evening. Equally, the embodiments of theinvention in addition to providing these benefits allow for timedmessaging to be established as part of a marketing campaign or otherbusiness related activity. For example, an enterprise may establish aSMS release to a predetermined client group offering a limited timeoffer and verify the clients who actually opened the message within thetime limit whilst allowing redemption upon a different time frame. Itwould be evident to one skilled in the art that other applications existexploiting such time and verification based messaging.

Now referring to FIG. 6 there is depicted a process flow 600 for avoicemail delivery system according to an embodiment of the invention.The process begins at step 605A and proceeds to step 610 wherein a userdecides to send a voicemail to a contact on the basis that they do notwish to have the contact receive the message immediately and also toknow that the contact has received the content within the message.Accordingly, in process step 615 the voicemail software system allowsthe user to generate a voicemail for a contact at a contact numberwherein the software system stores the voicemail generated by the userfor the contact within memory. Next in step 620 the user enters thelater point in time that they wish the voicemail message to be providedto the contact wherein voicemail message and timing information aretransferred in step 625 from the voicemail system to a remote systemwherein it is stored in step 630 until the indicated time has passed atwhich point it is sent to the contact number of the contact provided bythe user in generating the voicemail.

The process then proceeds to step 635 wherein a determination is made asto whether the voicemail was delivered to the contact's voice inbox ornot. If not, then the process flow 600 proceeds to step 640 wherein adelivery failure notice is provided to the user and the process proceedsto step 605B and stops. Upon successful delivery of the voicemail to thecontact's voice inbox the process flow proceeds to step 650 and anindication of a voicemail is provided to the contact on the device ordevices associated with their voice inbox. Subsequently the contact instep 655 accesses their voicemail system and a determination is made instep 660 as to whether the contact recovered the voicemail. If thatdetermination is negative then the process loops back to step 650 sothat an indication of un-played voicemails is provided to the contact.If it is positive then the process proceeds to step 665 wherein it isdetermined whether a read receipt for the voicemail has been requestedby the user in generating the voicemail. If not then the processproceeds to step 670 wherein the contact listens to that portion of thevoicemail message that they decide to and the process proceeds to asecond decision in step 680 on the read receipt which results in theprocess proceeding to step 695 wherein a first status message is sent tothe user indicating that the contact did at least “open” the voicemail.

Alternatively, the process proceeds from step 665 to step 670 wherein atimer is initiated with respect to the contact listening to the messagein step 675. Accordingly, after the contact has stopped listening to thevoicemail message the second decision in step 680 directs the processflow to step 685 wherein listening statistics relating to the voicemailplayback by the contact are calculated. For example this may be lengthof message, length of message played back, and percentage of messagelistened to. From step 685 the process proceeds to terminate in step605B via process step 690 where the user who sent the message is sent amessage containing the listening statistics as part of the messageindicating the contact played the voicemail. Accordingly, the user mayascertain how much of the message the contact listened to and based uponknowledge of the voicemail they generated whether the contact played theportion containing the important core element of their message.

Optionally, as there may be a significant delay between step 635 whereinthere is a determination that the message has been delivered to thecontact's voice inbox and steps 690 and 695, wherein a message isprovided to the user that the contact has played the voicemail with orwithout call statistics, an additional message may be provided betweensteps 635 and 650 to indicate to the user that the message has beendelivered successfully to the contact.

Now referring to FIG. 7 there is depicted a process flow 700 for a shortmessage (commonly known as SMS message or text) delivery systemaccording to an embodiment of the invention. Process flow 700 comprisesprocess steps 705A through 795 which essentially minor the process flow600 described above in respect of FIG. 6 with the amendments that ratherthan a voicemail message the content is a text message, that the textmessage is delivered to the contact's text messaging system rather thantheir voicemail system and the determination of statistics is based uponhow long the user has the text message open and hence assumed to bereading it. Accordingly, a read receipt request results in the userhaving information relating to the contact's action with the textmessage.

It would evident that more complex processing of the contact's actionsmay be undertaken, such as for example, one where in addition to thetime of the contact having the text message open it contains informationrelating to did the user scroll through the message, if so what portionof the message did they scroll through, did they reply to the textmessage, forward the text message, or delete the text message.Statistics or determinations of actions in respect of scrolling would bebased for example based upon knowledge of the length of the message, didit contain image contents, what font does the contact display texts at,what are the display dimensions of the device upon which the user readthe text message.

It would be evident in respect of FIGS. 6 and 7 that the read receiptrequest, processing, and reply messaging may be implemented withmultiple levels such as none, read receipt, and read statistics whereinthe “none” results in no message being delivered back to the user, “readreceipt” results in just a message that the text message was opened, and“read statistics” results in a read receipt that contains statisticsbased upon the contact's actions once the text message has been opened.

Now referring to FIG. 8 there is depicted a process flow 800 for avoicemail delivery system according to an embodiment of the inventionallowing the user to modify contact delivery information upon a failedinitial delivery. Accordingly, as shown in process steps 805 through 825the user proceeds in a manner essentially the same as that described inrespect of steps 610 through 630 respectively in FIG. 6 in that the userdecides to send a voicemail to a contact, enters the time after whichthe voicemail message should be delivered, and the voicemail istransferred to a remote system for storage until the predetermined timeset by the user has elapsed. However, the user the also establishes asecond time limit relating to a subsequent time after delivery whereinthe user wishes to know whether the contact retrieved the message ornot. Subsequently a determination is made in step 835 as to whether thevoicemail message has been delivered to the contact's voice mailboxresulting in the process proceeding to step 840 if a positivedetermination is made and the system displays an indication of thevoicemail message to the contact and proceeds to step 865A if a negativedetermination is made wherein a voicemail failure notice #1 is sent tothe user.

If a positive determination was made then after step 840 the processdetermines in step 845 whether the contact has recovered the voicemailwherein if a negative determination is made the process proceeds to step860 and a determination is made as to whether the time limit set by theuser in respect of the contact recovering the voicemail message has beenexceeded. A positive determination results in the process proceeding tostep 865B and a voicemail failure notice #2 is sent to the userindicating that the message was delivered but the predetermined limitset by the user has expired. If in step 845 the determination was thatthe contact had recovered the voicemail message then the processproceeds to first sub-process block 850 which comprises a series ofprocess steps similar to those described above in respect of FIG. 6 andprocess steps 670 through 695 in determining whether read receipts andcontact recovery statistics are required. Upon completion of firstsub-process block 850 the process proceeds to step 855 and stops.

For either of process steps 865A and 865B the process proceeds to step870 wherein a determination is made as to whether alternate contactinformation is to be entered by the user. If a negative determination ismade the process proceeds to step 875 and stops, otherwise a positivedetermination results in the process proceeding to step 880 wherein theuser enters alternate contact data, such as for example changing acontact's PED number to their home telephone number. Subsequently theprocess flow 800 proceeds to second sub-process block 885 whichcomprises essentially the same process steps and logical determinationsas discussed supra in respect of process steps 835 through 850, 860 and865. A repeat failure of the contact to recover the voicemail or failureto deliver the voicemail results in the process flow 800 returning toprocess step 870.

It would be evident that according to another embodiment of theinvention the determination in step 870 regarding alternate contact datafor the contact may be made based upon information entered by the userduring initial process steps 805 through 825 respectively wherein theuser enters multiple alternate contact data and the process flow 800sequentially tries each contact number for the contact. Optionally, thetime limit post-delivery of each voicemail message to an alternatenumber may be varied.

Optionally, as there may be a significant delay between step 835,wherein there is a determination that the message has been delivered tothe contact's voice inbox, and steps 860 and 865B, wherein a message isprovided to the user upon failure of the contact to recover the textmessage within the time limit set that the contact has not played thevoicemail, then an additional message may be provided between steps 835and 840 to indicate to the user whether the message has been deliveredsuccessfully to the contact. Accordingly, the user may determine uponreceipt of such a message to initiate a message via an alternate meanssuch as described in respect of FIGS. 6-7 and FIGS. 9-11.

Referring to FIG. 9 there is depicted a process flow 900 for a shortmessage delivery system according to an embodiment of the inventionallowing the user to modify contact delivery and message informationupon a failed initial delivery. Process flow 900 begins with firstsub-process 905 which with the exception of “Stop” process step 875 isprocess flow 800 described above in respect of FIG. 8. Rather instead ofprogressing to “Stop” process step 875 the process flow 900 proceeds tostep 910 wherein the user receives notice that the message has not beendelivered. At this point the process flow 900 proceeds through a seriesof determinations with the user in steps 915, 925, 935, and 945 whereinthe user is given options to re-try without any modifications, modifyprimary contact data, modify secondary contact data and modify themessage respectively. Process steps 925, 935 and 945 upon positivedeterminations result in the process flow proceeding to steps 930, 940,and 950 respectively wherein the user may enter modifications to theprimary contact data, secondary contact data and the messagerespectively. Accordingly either directly from step 945 or step 950process flow 900 proceeds to second sub-process 960 which is similar tofirst sub-process 905, and accordingly process flow 800 described abovein respect of FIG. 8 with the exception of “Stop” process step 875 whichis now depicted as process step 955.

Accordingly, a user may seek delayed delivery of an initial voicemailbut upon failure of the initial voicemail the user is provided with theability to re-send to alternate primary contact data, e.g. firstdelivery address for the message, adjust secondary contact data which ifnone was provided initially allows for it to be added and adjust thecontent of the message. For example a user may send a colleague amessage regarding a meeting the next morning but does not wish todisturb the colleagues evening and hence establishes a delay such thatthe message will be delivered at 7 am to the colleagues PED with a timelimit of 45 minutes. Whilst the message is delivered the colleague doesnot retrieve it such that the user upon receiving the notification tothis effect modifies the primary data to ring the colleague'sresidential phone intending this to result in the message now beingcommunicated to the colleague.

Now referring to FIG. 10 there is depicted a process flow 1000 for avoicemail delivery system according to an embodiment of the inventionallowing the user to modify contact delivery information upon a failedinitial delivery or delayed recovery by the receiving contact. Asdepicted process steps 1010 through 1025 provide a sequence wherein auser elects to send a voicemail to a contact, generates the voicemail,enters data relating to when the voicemail should be delivered and timelimit for recovery, after which the voicemail message is sent to theremote system. From process step 1025 process flow 1000 proceeds to step1030 wherein a determination as to the delivery of the voicemail isdetermined. A positive determination results in process flow 1000proceeding to first sub-process 1040, which is the same as secondsub-process block 885 in process flow 800 as described supra in respectof FIG. 8, thereby providing for monitoring of contact's playback anddetermination of voicemail playback statistics. Accordingly, firstsub-process 1040 either stops internally with a stop process step asdiscussed previously or process flow 1000 proceeds to step 1050 whereinthe contact failed to retrieve a successfully delivered voicemail withinthe predetermined time limit set by the user and a message is deliveredto the user to this effect. Process flow 1000 then proceeds to secondsub-process 1055 which depicts an equivalent process sequence as processsteps 910 to 950 respectively as described supra in respect of FIG. 9.Second sub-process 1055 either stops internally or process flow 1000returns to process step 1025 with the delivery of a modified voicemailmessage to the contact.

If the determination in process step 1030 was that the message had notbeen delivered then the process proceeds to step 1035 wherein it isdetermined whether the delivery failed or whether another issue existsin which case the process loops back to step 1030. A verified faileddelivery results in process flow 1000 proceeding to step 1045 whereinthe user is notified of the failure and the process then proceeds tosecond sub-process 1055 as described supra.

FIG. 11 depicts an electronic mail message system according to anembodiment of the invention allowing the user to perform actions basedupon failure of recipient to open electronic mail message or reviewportion contents. According the process begins within a start step infirst sub-process 1110 which provides a process flow comparable to thatdescribed in respect of process flow 500 except that an additional link“A” is provided to the equivalent process step as step 540 and thatprocess step 560 relating to the loop for contact recovery of the emailis now replaced by process steps 1120 and 1130. Accordingly, firstsub-process 1110 proceeds with a user generating an email for a contactand upon its successful delivery to the contact and display to thecontact in their email inbox wherein the process proceeds to step 1120wherein the process determines whether the user has initiated advancedsettings or not. A negative determination results in the process flow1110 proceeding to step 1130 wherein the process loops checking forwhether the contact access the email wherein a positive determinationreturns process flow 1100 to first sub-process 1110 at the equivalentstep to step 565 in process flow 500.

If a positive determination in step 1120 is made the process proceeds tostep 1140 wherein the process loops through process step 1150 untileither the time limit is reached or the contact makes another emailrelated action, such as deleting it for example, wherein in either eventhe process proceeds to second sub-flow 1160 which is equivalent tosecond sub-process 1055 in FIG. 10 which depicts an equivalent processsequence as process steps 910 to 950 respectively as described supra inrespect of FIG. 9.

It would be evident to one skilled in the art that within embodiments ofthe invention the generation of for example a voicemail may beundertaken as a process wherein the user generates a written messagewhich is then converted to a voicemail message or that a voice messagemay be converted to a text, SMS, or email message for example accordingto preferences of the user. It would be further evident that suchconversions may also occur at the contact side as a result ofpreferences of the contact. Such occurrences may for example allow for adisability of the user and/or contact or relate to aspects of theFED/PED upon which the communication is sent and/or received.

It would be evident that the storage of messages prior to delivery tothe user may be performed on the contacts PED/FED such that delivery totheir PED/FED is achieved but actually delivery notification to thecontact is not performed until the allotted time set by the user.

It would be evident to one skilled in the art that the embodiments ofthe invention relate to systems providing for the generation andreception of messages in one or more formats, including but not limitedto, email, SMS, text, and voicemail. Such embodiments of the inventionare essentially independent of the network over which the messages arecommunication and hence may include one or more additional wireless orwired interfaces/elements operating according to one or more standardswhich may be selected from the group comprising IEEE 802.11, IEEE802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, UMTS, GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM1900, GPRS, ITU-R 5.138, ITU-R 5.150, ITU-R 5.280, IMT-2000, DSL,Dial-Up, DOCSIS, Ethernet, G.hn, ISDN, MoCA, PON, Power linecommunication (PLC), and Cable TV. Wired interfaces may be further oneor more of twisted-pair copper, coaxial cable, singlemode fiber opticand multimode fiber optic.

It would be evident therefore be evident that embodiments of theinvention may be implemented as part of existing or futurecommunications systems and the software upon their associated PEDs/FEDsor that they be implemented as one or more standard alone softwareapplications that may also be employed on electronic devices. It wouldalso be evident that such software applications installed and/oroperating on the electronic devices may communicate to a software systemin execution upon remote servers such that communications relating toapplications for the user are parsed by the remote server based softwaresystem so that notifications can be provided to the user.

It would be evident to one skilled in the art that the conceptsdiscussed above in respect of software applications and communicationswhilst being primarily considered from the viewpoints of tabletcomputers, smart phones, laptop computers and similar communicationsbased portable electronic devices that the underlying principles may beapplied to a wider variety of devices including for example portablegaming consoles, such as Nintendo DS and Sony PSP; portable musicplayers such as Apple iPod, and eReaders such as Kobo, Kindle, and SonyReader. It would also be evident that whilst the embodiments of theinvention have been described with respect to a standalone applicationthat they may also be employed within software applications that formpart of an operating environment such as Windows, Mac OS, Linux andAndroid for example.

It would be further evident that the messages to/from the receiver'sPED/FED and from/to the sender's PED/FED may be transmitted through aremote server executing a software system and/or software applicationaccording to an embodiment of the invention wherein activities such asdetermining characteristics of the message send to the contact,receiving data relating to the contact's accessing of the message, anddetermining analytics of the message relating to the contact's access ofthe message may be performed by the remote system rather than at the endpoint PEDs/FEDs of the user and contact.

Specific details are given in the above description to provide athorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understoodthat the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details.For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not toobscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances,well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniquesmay be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring theembodiments.

Implementation of the techniques, blocks, steps and means describedabove may be done in various ways. For example, these techniques,blocks, steps and means may be implemented in hardware, software, or acombination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing unitsmay be implemented within one or more application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signalprocessing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers,micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed toperform the functions described above and/or a combination thereof.

Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described as a processwhich is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, astructure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describethe operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can beperformed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of theoperations may be rearranged. A process is terminated when itsoperations are completed, but could have additional steps not includedin the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, aprocedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process correspondsto a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the functionto the calling function or the main function.

Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software,scripting languages, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardwaredescription languages and/or any combination thereof. When implementedin software, firmware, middleware, scripting language and/or microcode,the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may bestored in a machine readable medium, such as a storage medium. A codesegment or machine-executable instruction may represent a procedure, afunction, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, asoftware package, a script, a class, or any combination of instructions,data structures and/or program statements. A code segment may be coupledto another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/orreceiving information, data, arguments, parameters and/or memorycontents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed,forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memorysharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies may beimplemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable mediumtangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing themethodologies described herein. For example, software codes may bestored in a memory. Memory may be implemented within the processor orexternal to the processor and may vary in implementation where thememory is employed in storing software codes for subsequent execution tothat when the memory is employed in executing the software codes. Asused herein the term “memory” refers to any type of long term, shortterm, volatile, nonvolatile, or other storage medium and is not to belimited to any particular type of memory or number of memories, or typeof media upon which memory is stored.

Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” may representone or more devices for storing data, including read only memory (ROM),random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic diskstorage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/orother machine readable mediums for storing information. The term“machine-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable orfixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels and/orvarious other mediums capable of storing, containing or carryinginstruction(s) and/or data.

The methodologies described herein are, in one or more embodiments,performable by a machine which includes one or more processors thataccept code segments containing instructions. For any of the methodsdescribed herein, when the instructions are executed by the machine, themachine performs the method. Any machine capable of executing a set ofinstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine are included. Thus, a typical machine may be exemplifiedby a typical processing system that includes one or more processors.Each processor may include one or more of a CPU, a graphics-processingunit, and a programmable DSP unit. The processing system further mayinclude a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM,and/or ROM. A bus subsystem may be included for communicating betweenthe components. If the processing system requires a display, such adisplay may be included, e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD). If manualdata entry is required, the processing system also includes an inputdevice such as one or more of an alphanumeric input unit such as akeyboard, a pointing control device such as a mouse, and so forth.

The memory includes machine-readable code segments (e.g. software orsoftware code) including instructions for performing, when executed bythe processing system, one of more of the methods described herein. Thesoftware may reside entirely in the memory, or may also reside,completely or at least partially, within the RAM and/or within theprocessor during execution thereof by the computer system. Thus, thememory and the processor also constitute a system comprisingmachine-readable code.

In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected, e.g., networked to other machines, in a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient machine in server-client network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer or distributed network environment. Themachine may be, for example, a computer, a server, a cluster of servers,a cluster of computers, a web appliance, a distributed computingenvironment, a cloud computing environment, or any machine capable ofexecuting a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine. The term “machine” may also betaken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointlyexecute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one ormore of the methodologies discussed herein.

The foregoing disclosure of the exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention has been presented for purposes of illustration anddescription. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theinvention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations andmodifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent toone of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. Thescope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appendedhereto, and by their equivalents.

Further, in describing representative embodiments of the presentinvention, the specification may have presented the method and/orprocess of the present invention as a particular sequence of steps.However, to the extent that the method or process does not rely on theparticular order of steps set forth herein, the method or process shouldnot be limited to the particular sequence of steps described. As one ofordinary skill in the art would appreciate, other sequences of steps maybe possible. Therefore, the particular order of the steps set forth inthe specification should not be construed as limitations on the claims.In addition, the claims directed to the method and/or process of thepresent invention should not be limited to the performance of theirsteps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readilyappreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within thespirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: a) establishing upon a firstelectronic device comprising at least a microprocessor connected to anetwork a first message for transmission to another electronic deviceassociated with a contact; b) establishing upon the first electronicdevice a plurality of items of contact data, each item of contact datarelating to a communications address associated with the contact; c)establishing upon the first electronic device first time data relatingto a future point in time that the first message should not be deliveredbefore; d) transmitting the first message and time data to a secondelectronic device connected to the network from the first electronicdevice, the second electronic device associated with a first item ofcontact data of the plurality of items of contact data; e) receivingupon the first electronic device from the network a first indication,the first indication relating to delivery of the first message to thesecond electronic device associated with the first item of contact dataof the plurality of items of contact data; f) automatically transmittingupon receipt of a first indication indicating non-delivery a secondmessage and the time data to another electronic device connected to thenetwork, the another electronic device associated with another item ofcontact data of the plurality of items of contact data; and g) onlyproviding an indication on either the second electronic device when thefirst message was successfully delivered or on the another electronicdevice when the second message was successfully delivered, wherein theindication is only available after the future point in time establishedby the first time data has passed.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein, establishing time data in step (c) further comprises receivingsecond time data relating to a subsequent period of time after thefuture point in time; and automatically transmitting upon receipt of asecond indication from the network a second message and the time data tothe another electronic device connected to the network, the secondindication indicating delivery of the first message and that the firstmessage has not been opened within the subsequent period of timedetermined by the second time data after the future point in timeestablished by the first time data.
 3. The method according to claim 1,wherein the first and second messages are the same.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein step (f) further comprises providing theuser with an option to modify at least one of the first message togenerate the second message, generate the second message, modify theanother item of contact data of the plurality of items of contact data,and add an item of contact data to the plurality of contact items. 5.The method according to claim 1, wherein steps (e) through (g) arerepeated for each item of contact data until the first message issuccessfully delivered to an electronic device associated with one ofthe items of contact data.
 6. The method according to claim 1 wherein,step (c) further comprises receiving second time data relating to asubsequent period of time after the future point in time; and steps (e)through (g) are repeated for each item of contact data until anindication is received that a message has not only been successfullydelivered to an electronic device associated with one of the items ofcontact data but that the message has been opened within the subsequentperiod of time after the future point in time established by the secondtime data.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein steps (a) through(f) performed on the first electronic device are performed on a remoteserver; the information in steps (a) through (c) provided by the userare communicated to the remote server from a first software applicationin execution on an electronic device associated with the user; and theindication that the respective one of the first message and secondmessage for the contact is available after the future point in timeindicated by the user time data has passed is provided by a secondsoftware application in execution on an electronic device associatedwith the contact.
 8. Computer readable and executable instructionsstored within a plurality of non-transitory non-volatile memories forexecution by microprocessors associated with first and second electronicdevices, the computer readable and executable instructions relating to aprocess comprising: a) establishing upon a first electronic devicecomprising at least a microprocessor connected to a network a firstmessage for transmission to another electronic device associated with acontact; b) establishing upon the first electronic device a plurality ofitems of contact data, each item of contact data relating to acommunications address associated with the contact; c) establishing uponthe first electronic device first time data relating to a future pointin time that the first message should not be delivered before; d)transmitting the first message and time data to a second electronicdevice connected to the network from the first electronic device, thesecond electronic device associated with a first item of contact data ofthe plurality of items of contact data; e) receiving upon the firstelectronic device from the network a first indication, the firstindication relating to delivery of the first message to the secondelectronic device associated with the first item of contact data of theplurality of items of contact data; f) automatically transmitting uponreceipt of a first indication indicating non-delivery a second messageand the time data to another electronic device connected to the network,the another electronic device associated with another item of contactdata of the plurality of items of contact data; and g) only providing anindication on either the second electronic device when the first messagewas successfully delivered or on the another electronic device when thesecond message was successfully delivered, wherein the indication isonly available after the future point in time established by the firsttime data has passed.
 9. The computer readable and executableinstructions according to claim 8, wherein establishing time data instep (c) further comprises receiving second time data relating to asubsequent period of time after the future point in time; andautomatically transmitting upon receipt of a second indication from thenetwork a second message and the time data to the another electronicdevice connected to the network, the second indication indicatingdelivery of the first message and that the first message has not beenopened within the subsequent period of time determined by the secondtime data after the future point in time established by the first timedata.
 10. The computer readable and executable instructions according toclaim 8, wherein the first and second messages are the same.
 11. Thecomputer readable and executable instructions according to claim 8,wherein step (f) further comprises providing the user with an option tomodify at least one of the first message to generate the second message,generate the second message, modify the another item of contact data ofthe plurality of items of contact data, and add an item of contact datato the plurality of contact items.
 12. The computer readable andexecutable instructions according to claim 8, wherein the process steps(e) through (g) are repeated for each item of contact data until thefirst message is successfully delivered to an electronic deviceassociated with one of the items of contact data.
 13. The computerreadable and executable instructions according to claim 8, wherein step(c) further comprises receiving second time data relating to asubsequent period of time after the future point in time; and steps (e)through (g) are repeated for each item of contact data until anindication is received that a message has not only been successfullydelivered to an electronic device associated with one of the items ofcontact data but that the message has been opened within the subsequentperiod of time after the future point in time established by the secondtime data.
 14. The computer readable and executable instructionsaccording to claim 8, wherein steps (a) through (f) performed on thefirst electronic device are performed on a remote server; theinformation in steps (a) through (c) provided by the user arecommunicated to the remote server from a first software application inexecution on an electronic device associated with the user; and theindication that the respective one of the first message and secondmessage for the contact is available after the future point in timeindicated by the user time data has passed is provided by a secondsoftware application in execution on an electronic device associatedwith the contact.
 15. The method according to claim 1, wherein receivingupon the first electronic device from the network a first indicationrelating to delivery of the first message further comprises receivingstatistics relating to the opening of the first message by a recipientof the first message.
 16. The method according to claim 1, wherein thefirst message is in a first format, the first format selected from thegroup comprising voice, text, short message service, audiovisual, andelectronic mail.
 17. The method according to claim 1, wherein: the firstmessage is generated in a first format by a user associated with thefirst electronic device; the first message is transmitted in a secondformat by the first electronic device via the network to the secondelectronic device; the first message is presented to a recipientassociated with the second electronic device in a third format; and thefirst message is transmitted to the second electronic device via thenetwork from the first electronic device in a third format, wherein thefirst format is established in dependence upon at least one of apreference of the user and an aspect of the first electronic device; thesecond format is established in dependence of at least one of apreference of the user, an aspect of the first electronic device, and anaspect of the second electronic device; and the third format isestablished in dependence upon at least one of a preference of therecipient and an aspect of the second electronic device.
 18. Thecomputer readable and executable instructions according to claim 8,wherein receiving upon the first electronic device from the network afirst indication relating to delivery of the first message furthercomprises receiving statistics relating to the opening of the firstmessage by a recipient of the first message.
 19. The computer readableand executable instructions according to claim 8, wherein: the firstmessage is generated in a first format by a user associated with thefirst electronic device; the first message is transmitted in a secondformat by the first electronic device via the network to the secondelectronic device; the first message is presented to a recipientassociated with the second electronic device in a third format; and thefirst message is transmitted to the second electronic device via thenetwork from the first electronic device in a third format, wherein thefirst format is established in dependence upon at least one of apreference of the user and an aspect of the first electronic device; thesecond format is established in dependence of at least one of apreference of the user, an aspect of the first electronic device, and anaspect of the second electronic device; and the third format isestablished in dependence upon at least one of a preference of therecipient and an aspect of the second electronic device.